Black Friday 2023: Getting the Most Out of Your Social Media Campaigns

Social media use is at an all-time high.

With Facebook having roughly 3 billion monthly active users, social media is an eCommerce marketer’s playground.¹

As people turn towards digital channels to browse, discover and purchase products, it is important your social media strategy for Black Friday is considered, well planned and works to drive the right traffic to your brand.

Over 73% of people actively shopping on social media, this number is only set to increase during Black Friday weekend when many shoppers start their holiday shopping.²

So let’s help you get the most you can out of your platforms.

How to succeed on social this Black Friday

There’s no denying that social media can catapult your brand’s growth, it is one of the most effective tools for retailers to market their products or services and build up a following of repeat customers.

Let’s look into some actionable ways you can succeed on social media this Black Friday.

1. Consistency creates conversions

A consistent posting schedule on social media has also been shown to increase your chances of hitting revenue by 40%.³

Having a clear content schedule will allow you to be organised and focused on your brand goals over the holiday season. Being prepared will also give you additional time to be reactive with your marketing campaigns once a new trend is on the rise.

You can get started by:

• Regularly posting relevant and high-quality content: A regular, consistent posting schedule will increase visibility on social media. You may consider scheduling your Black Friday campaigns in advance to fully prepare a more comprehensive content plan.
• Keeping profile pictures and banners up to date: Ensure that your Black Friday promotions are front and centre across all elements of your website. You could also consider making a Black Friday specific landing page, to ensure shoppers can find your sale section easily.
• A consistent TOV (tone of voice): Using a recognisable and consistent tone of voice throughout your social media presence, email marketing and overall brand communications allow customers to get to know your brand’s personality and build up a relationship with your accounts.

Pro tip: Promote your newsletter sign-up to your loyal social media followers this Black Friday to build up an established email list. You could even incentivise a sign-up by offering a subscriber discount or offer exclusive early access to your sales.

Suggested reading: Learn ‘What Email Newsletter Sign-Up Incentive Works Best in eCommerce?’ to achieve sustainable growth.

2. Develop a clear content plan

Now you have a good idea of how to approach your Black Friday social media schedule, let’s visit content.

It’s important to set goals for your social media marketing and establish what you want to gain from your efforts, this can be used to inform the type of content you create overall.

Your social media goals may include:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Driving traffic to your website and increasing conversions
• Boosting engagement and followers
• Generating leads

No matter your brand goals, you can create a clear content plan for your social media by:

• Using clearly lit, high quality photography: Avoid the generic Black Friday content influx and showcase your products in the best light by shooting content in-house using consistent styling and creative animations.
• Making use of all social platforms: Consider creating or repurposing your content into different formats to fit across multiple platforms, taking an omnichannel approach to your social strategy will naturally increase your reach.
• Benchmark social media trending dates: Research any social media holidays or trending days, in order to create relevant social media campaigns.⁴

Pro tip: You can benchmark your eCommerce performance against your competitors during this time using Salesfire Trends. Offering real-time data, use Trends insights to create reactive marketing campaigns and strategies

3. Know your audience

A big part of building a social media strategy is getting to know your audience. This will influence your content, your TOV and your overall approach to social media.

Social media platform’s can help create some of your most engaged, loyal audiences, who come to know your brand’s personality and build up a relationship with your accounts.

Black Friday is the perfect opportunity for shoppers to find new brands they love. Creating a strong Black Friday social strategy can help you reach shoppers who are looking for new gifting ideas and the best seasonal discounts.

So how can you increase visibility and find the correct audience?

• Use relevant hashtags: Including hashtags can increase your brand’s exposure. Be sure to break down your hashtags into super specific keywords to allow yourself to be found by users searching for relevant products.
• Showcase customer reviews and content: Users want to show off their latest purchases on Instagram stories and share their experiences with their favourite brands. Capitalise on UGC from your followers by sharing their images and reviews to help your organic growth.
• Use trending sounds and video: If you find that your audience is on short-form video platforms such as TikTok and Instagram reels, using trending sounds and videos will boost your visibility as they are naturally favoured by the algorithm.

Increasing your visibility is critical to your social media success, so optimise your content plans and social postings correctly to reach new audiences. You can then work to nurture these new shoppers into loyal repeat followers, who will purchase all year round.

Suggested reading: Discover the 7 Critical eCommerce Trends That Generate Profit.

Examples to consider: TikTok’s algorithm is unmatched for organic reach, as it allows users to completely personalise their recommended content in as little as 40 minutes. This can work to deliver your content directly to the correct audience.⁵

4. Instil urgency

The ultimate goal of any commerce business is to increase revenue and drive conversions. The work you put into your social media strategy can create a loyal customer base who will then go on to make a purchase.

It’s important your posts focus on creating a sense of urgency, especially when it comes to your limited-time offers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday .

You can inject a fear of missing out (FOMO) into your social media postings by:

• Utilising scarcity marketing: Communicate to your shoppers that your Black Friday sale is not around forever, and stock supply is low. This urges customers to purchase sooner rather than later.
• Use timers and countdowns: Countdown to the end of your limited-time offers and use time related trigger words in your copy and CTA to urge potential customers to purchase sooner.

Pro tip: The presence of a timer can create an 8.6% increase in conversions, so consider adding a timer to your social posts to increase urgency and drive conversions.⁶

5. Utilise ads

Last but certainly not least, ads. Social media ads are a perfect and almost necessary way to reach new customers and promote your Black Friday deals.

When using ads you can link potential customers directly to your site from that one post. If you are going to utilise paid advertising this time of year, you need to get hyper-specific about the audience you are going to target. Consider creating a buyer persona to gain a better understanding of your ideal customer’s likes, dislikes, and where they may show up.

Pro tip: Dynamic content across ads can help you personalise and target segments of your audience. Consider targeting your ads at customers who have already interacted with your brand to re-inject them into the sales funnel.

Support your social media campaign with an optimised eCommerce site

48% of online shoppers think that using social media is a great way to learn about new products. However, 71% of online shoppers prefer to purchase on brand websites.⁷

It is important that the traffic you generate from social media is driven to a fully optimised website which seamlessly guides a customer through their purchase.

With the influence of social media, you may consider integrating on-site features such as Visual Search, which allows your shoppers to discover products using an image as their search query. Through this, you can deliver similar matches to the products they have seen on influencers and in social media posts.

Suggested reading: We cover all you need to know about this on-site solution in our article, 6 Not So Obvious Benefits of Visual Search for eCommerce Businesses.

You could also consider integrating personalised Product Recommendations that work to replicate the social media algorithm, in which a shopper is exposed to new products and inspiration at every turning point.

Your social media is now armed and ready for Black Friday – good luck!

¹ Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as on 2nd quarter 2023 – Statista

² Most consumers now prefer shopping via social media | Ecommerce Age

³ The ROI of Social Selling: 5 Data-Driven Outcomes in 2017

⁴ Social Media Holidays Calendar 2022 – SproutSocial

⁵ How TikTok’s Algorithm Figure You Out – Wall Street Journal

⁶ 8 Stats About Ugency and Scarcity That’ll Surprise You – Business2Community

⁷ 71% of Online Shoppers Prefer to Check Out on The Brand Website Versus Social Networks – Retail Dive